From: Abraham Moses Genen (futurist@frontiernet.net)
Date: Sun Nov 16 1997 - 17:00:19 MST
Abraham Moses Genen
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Being dedicated to the future progress of humankind
should be the prime concern of all civilized beings.
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Michael Butler wrote:
>Hydrogen economy which generates the hydrogen by directly or indirectly burning
>fossil fuels, either to generate electricity or to farm land for fuel crops, is a
>huge net inefficiency. You're just moving the pollution and fossil fuel use
>around, not reducing it. Solar and fusion are possibilities, but either one is
>very capital-intensive and unlikely to pay for itself in a reasonable time. Guess
>what that leaves? It leaves hypotech (my portmanteau word for hypothetical
>technology} that reforms fossil fuels at the point of use, then feeds _that_ to a
>fuel cell. Some people claim to have it. We'll see. "Pure" H2 technology as a
>significant base for the economy just isn't in the cards--unless you palm a few.
>MMB
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Dear fellow Extropians:
It would appear from cumulative evidence provided by the USDOE, the USDOT and various Asian and European University and industrial research centers that possibly Michael might be in error.
Apparently, most new fuel cell technologies use hydrocarbon fuels somewhat more efficiently than internal combustion engines and polute substantially less or not at all. It would also appear that as the technologies develop, the probable efficiency of hydrogen activated fuel cell systems will increase substantially. Methods are also currently being perfected to store hydrogen fuels simply and efficiently as well.
The effects of this technology -- and other alternative fuel and energy producing technologies -- are beginning to move along far faster than was expected several years ago. I suspect, however, that the political constraints that might be imposed by existing vested interests in the petroleum industry might have some temporary effects on the implimenting of these technologies.
Particularly, our policies towards oil producing nations in the middle east will have to be completely re-evaluated during the next ten years. The general economic and industrial implications must also be re-considered. From the standpoint of social and political policymaking, I suspect that there will be substantial changes in our multinational relationships.
AMG
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